Saturday, January 23, 2016

A Very Merry Oregon Crochetmas!

Hey guys!

So I've already showed you all everything that I whipped up for my relatives and loved ones in Michigan, but I haven't mentioned what I made for my family in Oregon because obviously Patrick and I were out of town and did not get home until after Christmas, which meant that we had to wait to open presents. I also wanted to wait to post this because Patrick's daughter was coming to town to visit with us and I made something for her, as well, so I wanted to wait until she got to see her gift before I posted anything.

TARDIS Scarf

So this TARDIS scarf is what I made for Patrick for Christmas! For those of you who don't know, it is a Doctor Who themed scarf, a show which Patrick loves. The scarf measures somewhere around 6 feet long and the TARDIS pieces are actually separately sewn to the scarf so they serve as pockets! And true to Patrick's love of fringe, there is lots of fringe sewn in at the bottom. I didn't use a pattern for this-- it is one of my own making.

The wooden spoon is to show how deep the pockets go. I actually didn't have the spoon all the way in the pocket, but you get the idea. This scarf was another mixed media project, which I sewed together with a sewing machine. I felt that it was more appropriate than trying to stitch together the edges with yarn, which would just make it bulky and cause the edges of the pockets to be misshapen. Given the opportunity to change anything, I would add a grey block underneath the left window (because apparently there is some kind of sign on the TARDIS), and I might try to embroider "Police Box" onto the black bit at the top. I didn't try that this time because I was pressed for time and I hate embroidering on crochet, but I could always add it later. I also think an iron-on patch would be neat there but I would have to find one in the correct size... and the iron might melt the yarn since it is acrylic. Another option would be to embroider a piece of felt and glue that to the scarf, which I did consider but again, I was pressed for time (I actually finished this the night before I left for the airport for Michigan).

After my sister-in-law saw a photo of the original coin purse that I made for Michigan Crochetmas, she commissioned me to make another for her daughter! The money is just to show that the purse unzips.

For this coin purse I used the same pattern as last time but I did a different face and instead of stitching up the edges with yarn, I used my sewing machine.

POT Holders

I had an idea one night and by the next afternoon I had these ready to pack up and give away-- POT Holders (excuse me while I die of laughter at my wit)! Apparently I am not the only person in the world who has thought of this because it was not too difficult to find a pattern for the leaves (though I wrote it down and forgot where I got it from). These are a set of pot holders for a friend of ours. I'm not sorry if these offend some people-- they're a pun in and of themselves and they're hilarious (and useful!).

In my Michigan Crochetmas post, I noted that one of the largest items that I made was a piggy (and I didn't mean to make it so large)... This Totoro takes the cake by far, and the photos don't even do justice to his true size! I didn't exactly mean to make something so large (in theory a 9 inch stuffed animal doesn't sound so big) but holy crap, this thing took SO MANY DAYS. If I totaled up the number of hours that I worked on this guy and only gave myself $7 per hour plus the cost of materials, he would cost well over $100 to sell. I had to take time off from making it because my hands started cramping up! In the end he ended up measuring 10 inches in body height, 12.5 inches in total height (with the ears) and he measures 20.5 inches around at his widest point. I will definitely start considering size from now on when I find patterns that I want to follow!

I also decided that it's about damn time that I made myself something, because up until this point I have only ever made myself two scarves (which I ended up taking apart to use the yarn for other projects) and a pair of slippers (one of which fell apart because I didn't secure it well), so I decided to make this cat ear hat! My photo does not do it justice so I encourage you to click the pattern link to see what the hat looks like in good lighting (and without Snapchat captions). I'm really pleased with how it turned out!